If your family has experienced the loss of a family member or friend, we can assist you with determining whether a legal process through the Court system, called Probate, will be required. Depending on how assets are held it may or may not be necessary to probate an estate. If necessary, an estate goes through the probate process in order to gain access to the assets of the person who has died to pay their bills, to collect money they may have or be owed, and to eventually distribute their assets to persons they have named in a Will if they have one, to their heirs at law if they don’t.
If Probate is necessary, there are several options available, some simpler than others. We will assist you in decided which option may be best under your family circumstances. We will then work through the process of filing the necessary Court documents and accomplishing the tasks necessary to administer the estate under the Will and/or by law for the person or persons chosen to act as the Personal Representative(s) of the estate. We assist the Personal Representative in performing their duties required by law in the most effective way possible.
These duties include notifying all the beneficiaries of the estate of the process; paying the bills of the decedent; collecting and gathering assets owed to the decedent and selling them if needed; informing and dealing with creditors of the decedent; inventorying the assets, and ultimately distributing the assets to the persons entitled to them and closing the estate. We assist the Personal Representative in completing all of these activities in an expedient and effective manner and in the way that will most protect the Personal Representative from any personal liability.
If there is NOT a will, the estate must still go through the probate process in order to determine who the heirs are and what the distributions will be under Massachusetts Law and a Personal Representative must be appointed to take the same actions needed under a Will.
If you have received a Notice of Probate from someone but do not feel that the person asking to be appointed is appropriate, or that the Will being filed is not the right one, or that the person who died was not of the right mind when they signed the Will, or if you or your business are entitled to or owed money by the person who died, we can also assist. For more information on the Probate process in administering an estate please contact us.